****Update**** We ended up purchasing a DS Lite from Game Stop, great price and she's very happy!! Thanks to all who made a suggestion=)
My 8 yr old has been asking for DS for almost 2 years now... we recently saw the Didj at Target and wondered which would be better. She grew up on the Leapfrog Leapster and has now passed it on to her little sister.
I'ld like to here form ppl with these products and why u like them The DS is $150 and the Didj is $60 so theres a huge difference in price..
Thanks all.
I'm not to worried about keeping up with the "in crowd" at this age, she has a group of girls she plays with that have DS's and her one friend lets her play with her brothers DS when they're together. She also gets an allowance and has saved all her christmas and birthday money, she can buy either one and some games at this point. I see where the DS will grow with her as I have seen adults with it. Thats good to know the DS has educational games too, that is the whole reason I liked the Didj. So now we have a little more insight thanks!
My 8 year old has a didj and she loves. She has no desire for a DS. I love the educational games and the ability to down load them instead of buy them.
My nine year old got a DS last year. We looked at the diji but decided that when she went to school and all her friends were talking about DS she would then decide she wanted the DS and not the diji. Not that i feel you need to keep up with the next person. I feel the diji has more educational games but think they would grow out the diji to. What we did was told our daughter if she wanted the DS she had to earn half of the money threw chores and report cards or garage sale. It took a while but she saved her money and when she had enough we went to the store and helped her buy it. She is very responsible with it because she realizes how long it took her to save up her money. The DS has educational games also. They are a little harder to find, but I have found a math one and spelling and some brain strengenthing ones.
Our 7yr old has a DS that he got for Christmas. He has some educational games and some nonsense games, but nothing violent ever, and he's allowed to play it for 1/2 hour a day, thats it. When the 30mins is up, thats it, put it away.
I think the DS will grow with your child better than the Didj. We looked at both as well and ended up with the DS for growing power. The Didj had some bad reviews for the electronics, the memory (didn't save games or levels) and it had issues when hooking up to hte computer for downloading or software.
I've looked into both of these for my son and have read terrible review for the Didj...not a lot of games, they freeze up a ton, are unreliable, and that children generally get bored with them quickly. When the time comes for me to upgrade my son from his Leapster, I'll be purchasing a DS. I suggest you read as many online reviews from acutal parents as you can...they've saved me tons of money and lots of hassle!
Best of luck!
My daughter is 7.5 and has a Nintendo DS. I've never heard of the Leap Frog Diji so I'm going to guess it's not as cool. And around 7-10 years old everything has to be cool or they don't want it. I'm going to say if you want the most long time use and a kid who isn't embarassed of it in 2 years stick with Nintendo. I know LeapFrog is probaly more affordable and educational but if it sits and collects dust it would be a waste.
The only thing I can add is that I looked at getting a didj for my daughter for xmas and it has some pretty bad reviews having to do with some hardware problmes. I decided to put off the purchase until they figured out the glitches. You may want to check out the reviews to see if they are still having the same problems. She is still content with the regular leapster. I also have a DS (that is all mine) and she has asked a lot of times to get her some "kid" games at Target so she can use it :)
I also wanted to add that I see the DS's on Craigslist and ebay all the time if you are looking for something cheaper.
